Arts Queensland’s XYZ Prize for Innovation in Spoken Word is Australia’s first arts award that recognises the growing field of spoken word. The prize is named after the former 2010 Arts Queensland Poet-in-Residence, Emily XYZ, who left a deep impression on many of today’s Queensland spoken word artists.

Created by Queensland Poetry Festival, the prize was open to all Australian residents and comes with total prize money of $1500. Winning entries are published at Overland, a supporter of this prize. Queensland Writers Centre, also a partner, is offering membership and workshop credit to the highest Queensland entry.

The judges for the prize in its inaugural year were Dr Karina Quinn, Pascalle Burton, and the 2015 Arts Queensland Poet-in-Residence Kate Durbin. There were a lot of strong entries but after much deliberation, the following pieces were selected:

2015 Winner + Highest Queensland Entry

‘(v)aisle of caprice’ by Manna Marvel

2015 Runner-up

‘Explaining why Fiji is less privileged to 11F English poetry elective’ by Adrian McPherson

https://soundcloud.com/overlandmag/explaining-why-fiji-is-less-privileged-to-11f-english-poetry-elective

Highly Commended

‘Magical mistkaes’ by Elham Day

Read more at the Queensland Poetry Festival site.